As many of you will know, I left Mindshare in the summer to investigate opportunities in mobile. I've had a fascinating time, meeting lots of very smart people in the space (some old friends and many new friends) and I'm absolutely convinced that mobile is going to transform our business. If you have any doubts at all over the impact mobile is having, take 5 minutes to watch this Morgan Stanley video;http://www.addictivemobile.com/blog/2009/11/19/mary-meeker-video-its-all-about-mobile.html

What I also realised is that, with some honourable exceptions, the space is not that well served by professional services companies. Brands just don't believe that their agencies - creative or media - get this space. And amongst those who do take it seriously there is too much emphasis on technology and not enough on consumer insight and creative thinking.

So I have decided to start an agency in this space. I've teamed up with my friends at Agenda21 - some of the smartest digital media people in the business - and we are launching addictive! - a full service mobile agency.

The team will offer everything needed to develop effective marketing campaigns that have mobile at their heart - strategy, creative, development and media. Clients can use all the services or just the ones they need at the time.

Whilst we specialise in mobile, we'll be working in areas like Facebook too, as we see the worlds of mobile and social as very close. And, just as we pioneered at DLKW Dialogue and Big Picture, we'll be working in an open source way; collaborating and partnering with our clients, technology providers, content producers, media owners and other agencies to produce big addictive ideas that define how mobile can be used to build business.

And of course if you, or anyone you know, need help determining how best you can use mobile to build your business do get in touch. I'll buy the cup of tea.

And if you still need convincing that moibile is the right place to be, listen to what smarter people than me have to say;

WPP CEO Martin Sorrell: The biggest disappointment is that mobile advertising has not moved successfully as quickly as we'd like to see it. It's enormously attractive to clients. I

Publicis CEO Maurice Levy Perhaps surprisingly his view is that the prime digital medium will not be the internet as many predict, but the mobile phone. "In a couple of years, most of the information you share, most of the advertising you read, most of the messages you send, most of the music you listen to will transit through your cell phone," he states confidently.

NB - I'll be cross posting mobile stuff here and at addictive. Big Picture will also continue to look at non mobile stuff

The showing of a FA cup game live on the FA internet site is a significant step. On the back of the recent pay per view England game, this shows that we have a new era in sports - and that the dominance of TV is in question.

(Oddly enough there is little advertising in the centre break - how come some smart media buyer didn't jump in here?)

So what does that mean for sports? We already know that pirated premiership games can be found live on the web - and since we wrote about an early version of this four years ago much of the weekend traffic on this blog comes from people searching for pirated soccer.

So if you are Sky the next round of negotiations will be a little different; they have to factor in the possibility of peer to peer and the soccer equivalent of Pirate Bay doing to sport what they have done to music. And they'll have to deal with clubs recognising that they can sell their games direct to their fans over the internet. Of course the little clubs will want the security of a deal with a broadcaster but the big clubs - and yes, that does include Leeds = will be very tempted to go direct.

Interesting times

PS - Another of my passions seems to be involved too - for some reason Oldham have the Northern Soul mantra - Keep the Faith - written on the back of their shirts. Anyone know why?